Page 95 of Rocky Ride

“He was booked on previous charges,” said Travis, “and already locked up for a while, so I’ll allow him a phone call. Bring him out here, Ted. Give him his call and while he’s out of the run, book him on the new charges and lock him up again. Then start on the new people.”

“Copy that.”

“Go with Ted, Harlan. Nobody goes into the run alone with that many prisoners behind bars. Molly shouldn’t havebeen alone distributing the breakfast containers. Won’t happen again.”

“Mrs. Darkers is quite unpleasant,” said Molly.

Billy rolled his eyes.

Ted and I went into the run together to get Dan Darkers for his phone call and as soon as we stepped inside, Toby Darkers started hollering and cursing.

“I want my phone call, you fucking Mickey Mouse Deputies. You don’t give me a call right now, I’ll choke the life out of this dumb bitch here in my fucking cell.”

Toby grabbed Lila Gordon by the throat and bashed Lila’s head into the concrete wall a couple of times before Ted got the cell door open and ran in.

He pulled Toby off of Lila and threw her bodily onto the bunk. “Get me shackles, Harlan. Hurry.”

I ran to the supply cupboard, grabbed shackles and ran back to Ted. He chained Toby up while I helped Lila Gordon up off the floor where she was crying in a pile.

“My head is bleeding.”

“We’ll call medical for you, Mrs. Gordon. You stay away from her while I double the guys up and get you your own cell. It’ll take a couple of minutes and then you’ll be safe enough.”

“Thank you.”

Ted and I moved one of the men in with another and locked Lila up by herself. She lay down on her bunk and sobbed. We’d have to call Nurse Paderno to come from the Coyote Creek Medical Center and look at Lila’s head.

Dan Darkers chuckled as I cuffed him and took him out of his cell for his call. “My wife is a firecracker.”

“She committed assault on another prisoner,” I said, “and got herself more charges.”

I escorted Dan to the squad room and while he called his lawyer, I told Travis and Billy we had to move Lila Gordon to her own cell.

“That’s okay, son. As soon as Dan is finished his call, you and Ted re-book him and then start the new bookings one by one.”

About halfway through the booking process, the DEA Agents from Great Falls dropped into the station to thank us for the gift we’d given them. They supplied us with a list of evidence for the trials that would be coming up in the next few months.

They shook our hands and congratulated our station on getting thousands of dollars’ worth of opiates off the streets.

It got even better when our next visitor came in. The tall blond lawyer from Conrad who volunteered to pay the lab people, came to give Travis copies of the reports from both crime scenes. One report from the Ellington house in Coyote Creek, and the other from the Hoover house outside of Shelby.

“The main point of interest,” said the lawyer, “is the DNA trace left on Mrs. Hoover’s body by the killer.”

“Was the DNA in the system?” asked Billy. Without that, anonymous DNA wasn’t worth much.

“It was,” said Van Cedar. “It belongs to a woman named Toby Darkers. She has a criminal record, and her DNA was on file.”

Travis smiled. “That’s handy, ain’t it?”

“What do you mean?” asked Van Cedar.

“We have Toby Darkers locked up in our jail at this very moment.”

“Amazing,” said the lawyer. “Did she kill Mrs. Hoover and Mrs. Ellington because her husband was screwing around with them?”

“Could be,” said Travis. “That’s a nice tidy motive, ain’t it?” After thanking Van Cedar for the reports and for his effortsto solve the case, Travis went into the run to confront Toby Darkers.

“Evidence has just come in from the lab in Great Falls, Mrs. Darkers, and your DNA was found at the scene of Mrs. Hoover’s murder.”

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